1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic clinical thermometer which displays a predicted body temperature value for a brief time soon after commencement of determination, then compares the measured values before and after display of said predicted value, and on condition that the latter measured value is higher than the former measured value, causes the predicted value display to be superceded by a measured value display.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The clinical thermometer of predicted value display type is available in various constructions. These thermometers basically employs the display system shown in FIG. 5.
For about 30 seconds after commencement of measurement, the continually increasing measured temperature is displayed on the display area of the thermometer and upon lapse of said 30 seconds, the predicted body temperature is determined from the measured temperature data according to the exponential function computation formula and this predicted value is displayed on the display area. Then, while this predicted value display is on for 3 to 5 minutes, it is automatically superceded by the display of the measured value upon lapse of a display time of say, 5 minutes.
The above conventional electronic clinical thermometer is set so that the display of the predicted value is continued until the measured value reaches a steady state, that is, the broken line (measured temperature) in FIG. 5 acquires a substantially horizontal grade (3 to 5 minutes) with an infinite series of temperature values coming to have a finite value and, then, is replaced with a display of measured values. Therefore, by the time of this replacement with the measured value, the final measured temperature has increased to a level substantially equal to the predicted value. On the other hand, one who takes the body temperature may wish to know an approximate result of temperature measurement at an early time or wish to know an exact result. Or he may wish to know both.
However, the conventional clinical thermometer involving a long predicted value display time is inconvenient in use, for it does not provide information on the steadily increasing body temperature and, moreover, as there is little difference between the predicted temperature value and the measured temperature value displayed in lieu of the predicted value, one may not be certain whether the current display is indicative of the measured temperature or not.